Welcome, follow along with George Dutka in his journal which documents the additions and future thoughts for the HO scale White River Division model railroad and to his continuing historical New England railroad research. The White River Division is now in its 14th modeler's season. The "modeler's season" runs from November to April each year. Inspiration comes from the Boston and Maine, Rutland and Central Vermont Railway during the 1950's with additional posts by Don Janes and Peter Mumby.

Thursday, 28 January 2016

CN London East

Throwback Thursday: CN London East.Photo and Commentary by Peter Mumby

This
photo, looking across Egerton St. in March of 1983, amply illustrates
the many changes to the railway scene which are the hallmark of this
"Throwback Thursday" series. London East is located at MP 76.5 of the
CN Dundas Subdivision which cuts left to right through the centre of the
picture. To the right (east) of the photographer is London Yard; to
the left is the RIP track and the carman's office. Further west is the
Rectory St. locomotive facility. The downtown CN London tower and depot
is situated at MP 78.2, which is also MP 0 of the Strathroy
Subdivision.

All of the structures visible in this scene have
disappeared; the crossing tower is long gone, and the yard office has
been replaced with a more modern building located north of the double
track mainline. The roof at the upper right belonged to one of the
remaining buildings of the London Car Shops; three decades earlier
workers at this facility were busily repairing passenger cars and
converting old boxcars into wood-sided cabooses. Today this whole area
is part of the Western Fair complex.

Other relics of the past
visible in this image include a CN end-cab switcher, orange coloured
maintenance vehicles, and the cross bucks with the spelled out "railway
crossing." Also, notice that the cross arms wear the older black and
white paint. A later October 1987 photo shows these arms painted in the
current red/white colour scheme.

North of the mainline we can
see several 40' boxcars parked on storage tracks which have subsequently
been removed. Slightly beyond these boxcars is London Junction (MP
76.7), the place where the Thorndale Subdivision curved away towards
Stratford and Kitchener. At this time this trackage was under the
jurisdiction of the CN London "K" dispatcher. Today this part of the
line is supervised by the London yardmaster and is the connecting track
to the Goderich Exeter Guelph Subdivision.